WASHINGTON - A new listing of presidential campaign visits to states
shows how unusual it is that Indiana is getting attention this year.

The top 10 states receiving the most attention from the major party
nominees for president and vice president are similar to the top states
wooed in 2004, according to FairVote, a Maryland-based organization
that tries to draw attention to what it calls the nation's shrinking
presidential battleground.

Indiana, which has not been seriously contested in years, did not make the list of 10 most visited states in either election.

But
it had at least one candidate visit from Sept. 5 - the first day after
the parties' national conventions ended - through Oct. 6. (The group's
tally ended before Barack Obama's Indianapolis visit Wednesday and only
includes a visit by his running mate, Joe Biden, in September.)

Twenty-nine states have not received even a token visit by a candidate, according to the group.

The
states with the most candidate visits through Oct. 6 are: Michigan,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Virginia, Missouri, Florida, Wisconsin,
New York and New Mexico. Of those states, only New York, Virginia and
Missouri were not among the most visited states in 2004.

FairVote
argues that voters in states that are ignored by the campaigns are
"effectively disenfranchised" as the campaigns don't pay attention to
their particular issues.